My Mare Dewees
Consecutive lateral views of Left Front
When I started trimming my mare myself in 2003, she had been barefoot for about 2 years. I had a farrier that had been to a Strasser seminar and was trying to figure out how best to trim. The farrier eventually took Jamie Jackson's trimming course (Strasser's course was too expensive, too long, and required trips to Germany for the practicums) I had shoes on Dewees from the time she was 3 years old. I raised her and had tried to keep her from developing a club foot by rasping her feet every 10 days when she was a foal. I didn't really know what I was doing back then I just tried to keep her heel down on her right front so she wouldn't develop a club foot. Even now you can tell that her right front is only slightly less large than her left. I even had the farrier nail a tip shoe to force her to put her heel down.
When I started trimming after a clinic with an SHP Nancy Filbert in 2003, I was really inexperienced but I was trying to learn all I could. I think it might take many years of experience and photo record taking to be able to understand what was happening. I can look back at the first photos I have in June of 2003 that show Dewees' LF contracted with a stretched white line all around, the sole was sucked up tight to the coffin bone with black and white horn. The frog looked very necrotic and pinched. Then in just one month, she had a very wide looking foot but all the horn was yellow (I can't find that photo that I can put in a digital format). I remember asking what could have cause the yellow, horn, and my SHP told me it could be staining from the ground. I now know it was pus mixed with horn. The feet were having inflammation in all four feet. Since I never took any photos while the farrier was doing his trimming prior to my trimming, I have nothing to compare it to. I only have a couple of sole views from those early years.
Thru the years, I had different cameras. If I could offer any advice to someone learning about barefoot it would be to TAKE PICTURES! And remember to label and date them. Use a camera that you can stay back and zoom in for less distortion of the image.
As they say, hind sight is 20/20. And how do we learn? By making mistakes! I look back at both the mistakes I made prior to my taking her barefoot (like leaving shoes on for 8 to 10 weeks) to the mistakes I've made while learning to trim. I wish I had taken photos of her feet before I had the shoes removed and during the time the barefoot farrier trimmed her. But alas, I only started to take photos of her feet in 2003, after I began the Strasser trim. And I didn't really learn how to take good photos until 2005 when I began the SHP course. That was also the transition between film and digital photography for me.
I have continued to take photos for my own records and have been able to see both the progress and the mistakes. Even with these photos you can see that I didn't get the same angle on the feet. The ideal is to get the same angle, lighting, have the horse with the same position and weight distribution. But that's virtually impossible!
I didn't take any lateral views in 2008 (not sure why now) but the most recent ones I took yesterday show good attachment with straight hairlines.
One thing I've learned is that the foot can change over-night when the weather changes or the pasture changes. What looks like a well-attached foot can quickly change to less well-attached due to various causes. The living hoof is not a static thing.
A healthy hoof comes from good blood flow and balanced growth and a healthy horse. I didn't start with a healthy foot but I think I ended up with one, or two!
When I started trimming after a clinic with an SHP Nancy Filbert in 2003, I was really inexperienced but I was trying to learn all I could. I think it might take many years of experience and photo record taking to be able to understand what was happening. I can look back at the first photos I have in June of 2003 that show Dewees' LF contracted with a stretched white line all around, the sole was sucked up tight to the coffin bone with black and white horn. The frog looked very necrotic and pinched. Then in just one month, she had a very wide looking foot but all the horn was yellow (I can't find that photo that I can put in a digital format). I remember asking what could have cause the yellow, horn, and my SHP told me it could be staining from the ground. I now know it was pus mixed with horn. The feet were having inflammation in all four feet. Since I never took any photos while the farrier was doing his trimming prior to my trimming, I have nothing to compare it to. I only have a couple of sole views from those early years.
Thru the years, I had different cameras. If I could offer any advice to someone learning about barefoot it would be to TAKE PICTURES! And remember to label and date them. Use a camera that you can stay back and zoom in for less distortion of the image.
As they say, hind sight is 20/20. And how do we learn? By making mistakes! I look back at both the mistakes I made prior to my taking her barefoot (like leaving shoes on for 8 to 10 weeks) to the mistakes I've made while learning to trim. I wish I had taken photos of her feet before I had the shoes removed and during the time the barefoot farrier trimmed her. But alas, I only started to take photos of her feet in 2003, after I began the Strasser trim. And I didn't really learn how to take good photos until 2005 when I began the SHP course. That was also the transition between film and digital photography for me.
I have continued to take photos for my own records and have been able to see both the progress and the mistakes. Even with these photos you can see that I didn't get the same angle on the feet. The ideal is to get the same angle, lighting, have the horse with the same position and weight distribution. But that's virtually impossible!
I didn't take any lateral views in 2008 (not sure why now) but the most recent ones I took yesterday show good attachment with straight hairlines.
One thing I've learned is that the foot can change over-night when the weather changes or the pasture changes. What looks like a well-attached foot can quickly change to less well-attached due to various causes. The living hoof is not a static thing.
A healthy hoof comes from good blood flow and balanced growth and a healthy horse. I didn't start with a healthy foot but I think I ended up with one, or two!
1st photo I ever took of the sole of her LF June of 2003 after my first attempts at trimming
one month after my first trim inflammation caused pus to be mixed with sole horn.
LF 12-16-03 Anne Coley trimmed and angle of photo is very deceiving but over-all foot looks good compared to how it looks in the later photo below
LF 3-04 photo taken at a trim clinic with SHP Nancy Filbert; now I can see where coffin bone hit the bottom of the sole and yellow horn shows pus mixed with sole horn
LF sole in 9-7-2004 (photo taken the same day as the lateral view above right) I was trying to trim to one cm in bar height but didn't have a clue
LF 9-05 Photo taken to Skinner clinic in Oct. 05 Strasser Seminar at Horrel Hill dressage farm, shows abscess exit and way overtrimmed!
!2/20/2005 Before trim My first few months into the SHP course
12/20/2005 After trim I backed the toe to the break over as I was taught and did a scoop on the lateral walls; Claudia Garner critiqued trim photos during my SHP course
LF Xray taken in 5-30-2006 shows ski tip coffin bone; took for my SHP course case study
10/26/2006 Before trim
10/26/2006 After trim still a dish in the toe wall
4/21/2007 Before trim this was when her feet were really hard and working well
4/21/2007 After Not a good position for the photo but foot was in a good state of health
6/16/2007 Before trim
6/16/2007 After trim
!2/13/2007 Before trim; my notes say her bars were approx 2 inches high and that her feet were extremely hard and healthy and that it had been 5 weeks since her last trim.
12/2007 After trim
11/22/2009 Before
11/22/2009 After
LF 9-7-04
Then in 2004 (above) and Now in 2010 (below)
6/15/2010 After